The present invention relates to a simulation method for a high polymer material capable of simulating and evaluating the dispersion of fillers in a high polymer material certainly at short times.
High polymer materials such as compounded rubber used in vehicle tires usually contain fillers such as carbon black and silica. It is well known in the art that the dispersion of fillers in a compounded rubber exerts a strong influence on properties, e.g. strength of the rubber.
In recent years, in order to evaluate the dispersion of fillers in a high polymer material, various computerized simulation (numerical calculation) methods have been proposed.
In this kind of simulation method, filler models of fillers and polymer models of a high polymer material are defined, and a molecular dynamics (MD) calculation is performed on the filler models and polymer models placed or set in a predetermined virtual space.
Then, based on results of the simulation, the dispersion of the fillers is evaluated by an operating personnel. Thus, it is difficult to provide objective exact evaluations.
Further, it takes a long time to compute the movements of the filler models in order to simulate the filler dispersion.